Rice's firing should be the first step

Thursday

Apr 4, 2013 at 1:02 AM

A college coach has to be good on two fronts: with his team coaching practices and games, and in the living room when he's trying to recruit star players.

Jason Queen

A college coach has to be good on two fronts: with his team coaching practices and games, and in the living room when he's trying to recruit star players.There are some, although they are few and far between, who are superb in both areas. And sometimes, a program sells itself. Nick Saban doesn't have to say a whole lot in the living room. He walks in with an Alabama shirt on, and he can hand-pick which players he wants to bring to Tuscaloosa.Same goes for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Roy Williams at Carolina. Kids want to play at those schools; there aren't a lot the coaches can say to turn high school kids off.But when those coaches sit in living rooms with high school kids and their parents, they have to assure parents that they are going to take care of their children. Many top-tier players go very far from home to play, and, even though these players are in their late teens and early 20s, they are still their mom and dads' children. Those parents trust coaches, and their staffs, to take care of those children.Mike Rice violated that trust in a big, sickening way at Rutgers. A video surfaced or Rice abusing his players in practice this week; ESPN aired several unbelievable practice clips Tuesday in an 'Outside the Lines' segment. Rutgers assistant coach Eric Murdock had reported Rice's behavior to athletic director Tim Pernetti over the summer. Pernetti promised to look into it.Then, in late November, Murdock provided video evidence of the abuse to Pernetti, and it was available to university president Robert Barchi. Pernetti, upon viewing the footage, suspended Rice for three games and fined him $50,000.That was a pathetic response to that situation. Rice was shown grabbing players, pushing players, kicking players in the butt, shouting homophobic slurs at and cursing at players, and hurling basketballs at players like he was locked in the finals of the World Dodgeball Championship.Because of the public outcry the videos garnered, Rutgers hastily fired Rice on Wednesday. That's ridiculous. They are admitting that he should have been fired as soon as the footage was presented to them, but they chose to leave him in place and in charge of the basketball program.What those administrators, and millions and millions of college sports fans don't understand is, Mike Rice is not in charge of Rutgers men's basketball. He is responsible for every young man that plays basketball for Rutgers. He is, in essence, their father for several months of the year for a four-year period. Rutgers isn't exactly producing a steady parade of NBA talent. His No. 1 priority should be getting those young men ready for the rest of their lives; making sure they're going to class, doing well in class, and on track to graduate. He needs to make sure they're not smoking weed with their buddies, breaking into their ex-girlfriend's apartment, or stealing radios out of people's cars on campus.Instead of serving as a positive role model for these young men, and trying to develop positive members of society, he spent his time breaking these kids down. At the end of the day, that's all they are. That player you see out there on a basketball court? That's somebody's son.Rice deserved to get fired, and it's gonna take a lot of rehabilitation for him to return to coaching. But Pernetti and Barchi need to be fired, too. They turned a blind eye to the abuse Rice was dealing, making them every bit as culpable as he was.Jason Queen can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 220, or jason.queen@the-dispatch.com.